Wolfert

Thank you for a great explanation. If one doesn't have one of those seal a meal pouches, one could cook the duck in the fat and keep it at 190 by removing the cover when the temperature stabilizes which takes about 2 hours. Then there is another 2 to 2 1/2 hours to cook the duck legs. Fiinally letting the duck to cool in the fat for another hour gets you to a 5 hour cooking session. Though I've always been happy with my confit prepared in a slow cooker, I can't wait to try your method.

If it solidifies at room temperature and is perfectly clean, I don't see why you couldn't add it to your stash of fat. You do need quite a bit to make confit unless you are planning to follow nathanm's method above.

I wonder if flavor develops during the aging process. Bloviatrik: I am so happy to read your results. Good you kept the rest for yourself. Here's a tip: when you fry up the skin do it in a heavy tasteless oil so that you can really get a crisp skin. Then place it on a rack or crumbled paper bag from the supermarket to drain.

I am up for both.

Before or after the Czech excursion? I can't wait to go again so as others chime in for a preference, I think it would be a fabulous idea! What's everyone doing next weekend??? ←

Before or after the Czech excursion? I can't wait to go again so as others chime in for a preference, I think it would be a fabulous idea! What's everyone doing next weekend??? ←

I think I 'm beginning to understand. Also, if the water rises and stabilizes at 180 degrees it doesn't mean the fat has risen to 180 at the very same time. Could that be a factor?

This is so exciting. When Mourad was in San Rafael his food was pretty standard but very, very good. Obviously, the move to San Francisco has been a terrific challenge and he rose to meet it. Carolyn, it sounds like he has achieved a culinary self-confidence and luminous sense of taste that takes Moroccan cooking to another level. I can't wait to go. Maybe that could be a group outing as well?

I think doing it in a sealed bag is absolutely brilliant. I just don't see why the timing is so long. I use a slow cooker with a polder thermometer and monitor the temperature of the fat on LOW and it takes no more than 3 hours to cook a duck leg. Pork does take longer. Have you ever removed one after ---say--- 5 hours and checked the texture?l Do you cool it down in the water bath as well?

Has anyone tried putting the pan in a self cleaning oven and turning it on? You'll probably have to reseason but I'm sure anything stuck on there will turn to dust.

Another question...I have some additional duck fat in the freezer. Can I just combine my extra from the confit with that stash? Or should I freeze it separately? I'm running out of room in my freezer and am trying to consolidate. -------------------- Yes, you can combine. I usually reheat strained fat with a few tablespoons water and bring it almost a boil then let it cool completely before discarding the water. The fat keeps longer that way in the refrigerator or freezer.

What kind of ducks did you use? I store confit in fat for storage. If you plan to eat it tomorrow just be sure to cover the flesh completely so it won't lose its silky texture. Do by all means strain out the debris. Keep it to flavor salad dressing, stew or soup.

For the next time, buy some rendered duck fat from d'artagnan. Another way is to get yourself some Pekin or moulard ducks and make more confit and keep the fat going. You can mix duck fat with pork or butcher's lard as well. Muscovy ducks are extremely tasty birds and are delicious roasted, sauteed and braised. They are not my first or second choice for making confit mainly because they are so lean.

If you did burn the fat then it won't deliver a good confit. On the other hand, I would go ahead and cook the duck in it if it is just slightly browned. Better not to use it for storage or for another round because it is no longer a healthy fat/ I went to the other thread and now I understand the problem. You were using muscovy duck skin and whatever fat you could find on and around the duck flesh. That is hard to do since it is so lean. You really need to add other fat. Or add a little water when rendering to encourage 'fat run' . THink of it as priming a pump. I used stored duck fat that I had in the fridge.

Ok, this is what I did today with 4 muscovy duck legs (total weight 2/34 pounds) via grimaud farms. They had been marinated overnight with Diamond Crystal salt\ 22 grams per pound and a few thyme sprigs, bay leaves, brusied peppercorns, and sliced shallots. This morning I rinsed off the excess and placed them in my crockpot. Added about 3 cups duck fat and turned the heat to low. It took 4 hours to arrive at 191 degrees (next time I will use high;I am sure I can reduce the time to 1 hour) and then let it cook, partially covered, for 2 1/2 hours. They were tender and didn't tighten up which would certainly have happened with higher heat. I left them for about 1/2 hour to cool down before lifting them out and layering them in a wide boxd covered with pure fat. Tonight I will store them in the fridge. I believe in 'aged' confit(to quote my son "confit like wine and women is better aged") so don't expect me to post a taste test for AT LEAST A WEEK stay tuned. PS It might take 3 hours to cook if I push the heat on the onset.

Pekin aka Asian aka Long Island ducks do not take as much time as moulards or muscovy ducks to cook. If you plan to make confit for cassoulet I guess you could go for a higher temperature and shorter time as Bourdain suggests. I usually tear up the confit before placing it in my cassoulet and it wouldn't make much difference. On the other hand, I like to serve confit with sauteed potatoes and a salad which I do a lot more often than serving cassoulet. I think a slower approach is really important to obtain a flesh that is very succulent and a skin that is crackling crisp. In south west France it is very rare to use Muscovy duck(canard de barbarie) for confit; it is more often slow roasted. The reason I'm trying to make confit with muscovy duck thighs and legs is due to culinary bear making it sound so appealing. How long to cook the Asian aka Pekin aka Long Island ducks? I would try to maintain a temperature between 192° to 210F, but no higher, adjusting the setting as necessary, for 1 to 2 hours, or until a toothpick pierces the thickest part of thigh easily. Remove the pot from the heat and let the duck legs cool in the fat for 1 hour. The total time is about 3 hours on top of the stove. The crock pot is perfect for cooking confit but takes a little longer than the oven or stove top. Figure 1 hour to come up to temperature, 1 to 2 to cook, and another to cool down.Mind you, some crock pots have better temperature controls than others. So be sure to test after 3 hours.

I just ordered the Bourdain book so I can't comment on the kind of duck legs he is using for confit . Keep in mind that Muscovy legs take about one hour longer to cook than the moulard and two hours longer than the Pekin which might explain the lengthy cooking time of some recipes. In the meantime, I put up some Muscovy legs to make confit tomorrow. I will use my crockpot and I expect it will take about 7 to 8 hours on low to arrive at the tender, flavor-packed flesht that I like.

Here is an address I have fromanother letter dated 1988. Freedom Cookery 1235 Bay Street Suite 400 Toronto M5R 3K4 hone 969 9306

thank you so much for your response. I will check back everyday to hear whatever you find out. This will be really something extraordinary because I believe that Pierre de Serres was doing some revolutionary work in the slow cooking and sous vide field before some of the better known folk got on board. He was a scientist, not a chef, and when he explained the "smart pot" to me I was filled with the words of meat fibres, enzymes, and connective tissues which made my head swirl. I learned that he gave his home invention to his wife, sarah suherland, who changed the name to la cusine machine and wrote a cookbook to accompany it. I'm still searching for that book as well. Way back when he sent me a cooking chart for fish and cooking times which was part of a research project conducted by the Canadian federal department of agriculture. The study focused on the temeprature at which the flesh of various meats and fish were at their best. One correspondence included the following: " in all cases, flakiness has developed by 60 degrees C, but the texture was not necessarily at its best. " I think this guy is getting a short shrift. Thanks for any help.

One warning: if you have a small bowl food processor, divide the dough in half before kneading. Some machines don't have the power to take on this recipe in one go.

I think it would make very tasty confit. The only problem I can imagine is getting your hands on enough fat to cook them. Wild birds are lean. In the French Southwest where confit is King most wild birds are 'put up' in salmis. This is a long simmered red wine based stew traditionally stored in jars for use later on in the year. And like confit the flavor gets better with time.

I learned alot about brioche making from Jean-Claude Szurdak, a New York- based French-born pastry chef. (Jacques Pepin writes and talks about him in his books and tv shows.) Szurdak learned to make brioche at the age of fourteen when he apprenticed to an eighty-seven year-old master patissier who worked at an earlier time for Escoffier. Szurdak described his method to me. All I did was adapt his detailed recipe to work in a cuisinart for the then (1979) popular food magazine, Pleasures of Cooking, edited by Barbara Kafka. Here is more or less what I wrote at the time: 'Each afternoon the fourteen-year-old Jean-Claude and the man old enough to be his great-grandfather would go down to the cellar of the bakery (where it was quite cold) to prepare the yeast-flour-milk mixture for bricohe. While the levain was "working up,' they would beat together a mixture of flour, eggs, and butter until it became a smooth, light, elastic dough. They would then spread this dough out on work table, place the very soft levain in its center, and, with the help of a dough scraper and an intricate series of foldings, enclose it securely in the dough. They then left the dough to rise in the cellar for al ong while, on the old man's theory that a long slow rise developed a better-structured crumb and a tastier brioche. The risen dough was then 'knocked down' and left overnight to ripen in the same cold cellar room. Finally, it was shaped and brought upstairs to the warm, humid baking room for its final rise before going to the oven. In the words of Jean-Claude, the dough then exploded into a light, spongy cake with all the attributes of a perfect brioche: a hairline crust, an even crumb, and a delicious, even egg and buttery flavor.

THanks so much for your kind words on the brioche recipe. Funny you should be writing about my brioche recipe. I had just emailed it to the webmeister this morning asking him to post this version on my site. We had to cut out almost all the dough recipes from the Cooking of Southwest France in order to make room for new material. I plan to post all the 'ousted' recipes on my site in the coming months. So here it is--- BRIOCHE DOUGH I spent an entire autumn working up brioche recipes trying different methods, consulting with bakers and chefs, thinking and rethinking ways of achieving a perfect all purpose dough. I hate to think of how many pounds of butter I used, how many dozen eggs, how many packages of yeast, how much oven cleaner! The smell of yeast risen dough filled my New York apartment. Neighbors sniffed as they passed my door. My children rebelled and demanded "normal bread." But finally (and I say this with my characteristic modesty à la Henry Kissinger), I came up with something that I think is very special because of four unusual things. Actually, none of these things is that unusual in itself it's the combination that is unique. 1. The lightness and fluffiness of this brioche I attribute to an early nineteenth century method of initiating the first thrust of the yeast. In this method, known as "sponging," the yeast is mixed with milk, one quarter the total amount of flour, and an egg. This mixture is left to rise under a blanket of the remaining flour for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This stage may be considered as an extra long rise. 2. The trouble with a lot of brioche recipes is that they force the rising of the dough with too much yeast and end up sacrificing flavor. As a result, the brioche tastes too "yeasty." No matter how fluffy or buttery or light it is, it doesn't taste "natural." My solution is a long, slow rise using a small amount of yeast; this results in a superb natural flavor and a crumb with a better structure. 3. The buttery quality of brioche has traditionally been the result of a messy workout of the dough in which the butter was cut into the dough with a great deal of effort. If there was anything that turned off home cooks contemplating making their own brioche, it was the anticipation of this laborious task. Food processor to the rescue! We are now able to achieve perfect absorption of the butter with no manual effort and without any mess at all. 4. The classic technique of making brioche always entails the "knocking down" process (or, as the French say, "waking up"), a deflating and folding of the dough mass to redistribute the yeast cells. Too many recipes call for kneading at this stage, and I couldn't disagree more. It's very important that the redistribution be done gently, and you will find precise instructions in my master recipe. This is the key to the explosion of the dough into a light, spongy cake. Bakers tell me that you can do everything correctly up to this point but your brioche may fall short of perfection if you do not properly execute this stage. MAKES 1 1/4 POUNDS DOUGH oPrepare up to 3 days in advance ACTIVE WORK: 15 minutes UNATTENDED RISING TIME: 5 to 6 hours 3 tablespoons milk, scalded then cooled to warm 1 1/2 teaspoons (1/2 package) dry yeast, or 2 packed teaspoons fresh compressed yeast 8 ounces (about 1 2/3 cups) unbleached all purpose flour, a brand with 12 to 13 grams protein per cup, or substitute bread flour 3 eggs, at room temperature 3 or 4 tablespoons sugar 3/4 teaspoon salt 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted but not hot 1. Making the sponge: Place milk and yeast in the workbowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process on and off to combine. Add 1/3 cup flour and 1 egg. Process 2 to 3 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl. Sprinkle remaining flour over the mixture; do not mix in. Cover and let stand 1 1/2 to 2 hours at room temperature in the workbowl. (If you need your workbowl, scrape the mixture into a mixing bowl and sprinkle the remaining flour on top.) 2. Kneading the dough: Add 3 tablespoons sugar (4 tablespoons if you are making a dessert), salt, and the 2 remaining eggs to the workbowl. Process 15 seconds. With the machine on, pour in the melted butter in a steady stream through the feed tube. Process 20 seconds longer. If the machine stalls (this happens when the butter is added too quickly), let the machine rest 3 minutes. Meanwhile check that the blade is not clogged. 3. First rise: Scrape the resulting "cream" into a lightly greased 3 quart bowl. Sprinkle the top lightly with flour to prevent a crust from forming. Cover airtight with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature about 5 hours in warm weather, 6 hours in cold weather, or until dough is light, spongy, and almost tripled in bulk. Refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes without deflating. 4. Deflating and redistributing the yeast cells: Using a plastic scraper, deflate the dough by stirring it down. Turn out onto a lightly floured board. With floured hands, gently press the dough into a rectangle, then gently fold into thirds. Dust with flour. Wrap well and refrigerate. Allow dough to harden and ripen overnight. Punch down once or twice if necessary. The dough will keep 3 days in the refrigerator if well wrapped and weighted down, or it can be frozen for 1 week. (Dough doesn't freeze well for longer than 1 week.) To defrost, thaw overnight in the refrigerator. c\Paula Wolfert 1979 Pleasures of Cooking (cuisinart magazine); 1983 Cooking of SouthWest France; 2004 website

I made a mistake---- his name is Pierre de Serres and he invented a "smart pot' back in the 80's. This 'smart pot' looked like a crock pot, but it used exact heat instead of cooking time to achieve perfect results. For example, he wrapped up a roast in a plastic pouch and immersed it in water that was exactly 145 degrees F. You placed it in the pot in the morning. and it came out perfectly medium rare, no matter when you took it out. He did the same with fish and developed specific temperatures for optimum cooking:salmon at 155 F;Sole at 165; Grouper at 175; and Haddock at 145 F. The last address I have for him is in Don Mills Ontario. Does any of this sound familiar?

You can make a 'mini-rillette' with the debris that falls to the bottom of the pot. Be sure to season liberally with pepper and blend with some of the cloudy fat. Like CB I smear it on toast.